Tapering Pred on my own

Can you guys help me with Prednisone tapering?

I am getting married in October and I want to get off this Pred asap so maybe some of this moon-face I’m having will go away. I’m so mad I will be fat for and have moon-face in my wedding pics!

I have been on 20mg of pred since early April and I want to start tapering but this is only the second time I’ve ever been on it and I don’t remember how I tapered last time. I would talk to my GI but he’s worthless and I can’t even see him until the end of the month! I have been on Cimzia for about two months now and it’s working well so I’d like to get off the pred.

What I need to know is the best way to taper safely and quickly. I started taking ~15mg the other day by cutting one of my 10s in half and I was thinking a week of 15 then a week of 10 and then two weeks of 5? Is that too fast? I don’t want to do damage in the long run for only the sake of my wedding pics but I want my face back!

 

I was off and on for 3 yrs. If I were you I'd do 15 a wk, 10 a wk, 5 a wk and the 2 1/2 a wk. and then 2 1/2 every other day for a wk. That's what I did and it worked for me. Goodluck and congratulations!

Ok, pred. since early april, it's early july, so 3 months of pred, yep, you will need to taper.

5mg per week is safe. 15mg for one week, then 10mg for one week, then 5mg for one week.

Once you hit a 5mg per day total dose, 5mg a day is all you take, then you want to go really slow. 1 or 2 mg reductions per week from that point, I would suggest.

It's good to have a doctor help you at that point too. You can go see an endocrinologist, they are experts in prednisone, and can help you taper off it without getting into any trouble. They can also explain why you must go slow from that dose, how it can affect your adrenal glands, much better than I can, if you wanted to understand it...

When you are on 5mg a day, your moon face is going down really fast. Even when you go from 5mg to 4mg, you moon face is going away very quickly. Keep in mind that it took you 3 months, at 20mg per day, to get that moonface, anything less than that dose, means it is going down.

You have plenty of time to get rid of moonface by October.

Take Care

:)